A National Day Takes Root
The 39th National Tree Day turned the seafront of Pointe-Noire into an open-air nursery this 6 November 2025. Under a morning sun, TotalEnergies EP Congo handed nearly 300 young trees to the city, renewing a tradition that mixes civic pride and climate awareness.
General manager Éric Delattre presented the seedlings to Prefect Pierre Cébert Iboko Onanga, who in turn passed them to Mayor Evelyne Tchitchelle Moe Poaty. The triple handshake symbolised the alliance between private sector, departmental authority and municipality in the quest for a low-carbon future.
Soldiers, pupils and neighborhood leaders lined the coast to watch the first coconut tree go into the sand. Speakers reminded the crowd that the national celebration, instituted in 1984, urges citizens to fight deforestation one sapling at a time.
Why 300 Saplings Matter
TotalEnergies chose a mix of 50 coconut palms and 124 terminalia mantaly for the Atlantic beachfront, plus 50 additional terminalia for the grounds of CEG Ngoyo A. The species resist salt spray, supply shade, and stabilise sandy soil threatened by coastal erosion.
Agronomists from the Departmental Forest Economy Services calculated a seven-metre spacing for healthier canopies and easier maintenance. At that rhythm the two chosen sites can host 174 stems on the shore and fill half a hectare behind the school within the coming months.
Paul Galoy, departmental director for forestry economy, called the layout “a living classroom for biodiversity”. He linked the initiative to the presidential target of a greener Congo and to the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration, urging residents to water the seedlings weekly.
From Coast to Classroom
The coastal strip known as Côte Sauvage doubled as the first plantation zone. Tourists often picnic there, yet shade is scarce after years of informal wood harvesting. Students from Collège Ngoyo A will now measure each new leaf for their science projects.
Teacher Blandine Ngoma believes the trees will cool classrooms by two degrees once mature. “Children learn faster when the yard is green,” she said, showing faded thermometers that hit 34°C last March. Parent committees volunteered to build simple fences against roaming goats.
City technicians recommend residents water saplings twice a week during the first dry season, using collected household greywater where possible. A hotline 242 050 50 50 will send SMS reminders and weather alerts so volunteers know the best evenings to irrigate.
Staff Join the Green Push
Inside TotalEnergies bases at Poincaré, Kilometre 4, Base Industrielle and Djeno, another scene unfolded. Employees queued beside pallets of papaya, mango and tomato seedlings purchased from the National Reforestation Company. Each badge holder could pick a favourite under the motto “one employee, one tree”.
HSSE division chief Irène Kimpo reminded colleagues that fresh fruit juice at home starts with watering the yard. Her team distributed leaflets on composting with ground coffee and eggshells, techniques she says reduce household waste by up to 15 percent while feeding roots.
The 1 700 plants allocated to personnel could, on their own, sequester an estimated 20 tonnes of CO₂ across two decades, according to internal calculations. Delattre joked that the figure equals “three round-trip flights to Paris fewer for the planet each year”.
Voices from the Ceremony
Prefect Iboko Onanga hailed the oil company’s gesture as “evidence that development and ecology walk together”. He emphasised the administration’s role in monitoring the plots, promising monthly inspections and replacement of any failed saplings before the next rainy season.
Representing youth groups, nineteen-year-old volunteer Prisca Mavinga said the project gives her generation a practical mission beyond social media hashtags. “I will bring my little brother to measure trunk diameters,” she smiled, brandishing a borrowed forestry tape.
Civil-military cooperation was also visible. Marines from the local garrison dug initial holes with pickaxes usually reserved for defensive trenches. Their commander noted that healthy mangroves and beachfront trees reduce storm surges, an issue for coastal security as much as for fishermen.
Looking Beyond 2025
TotalEnergies EP Congo reiterates a net-zero ambition by 2050, aligning with the parent group’s roadmap. Local management says small, verifiable actions such as Friday’s donation build credibility among residents who mostly judge companies on the dust, noise or benefits they bring.
The municipality will now integrate the two new groves into its geolocated inventory of urban trees, launched last year with support from the African Development Bank. The open database helps technicians schedule pruning, detect disease outbreaks and plan shaded bus stops.
Environmentalists applaud the gesture yet caution that survival rates, not planting totals, tell the real story. In response, the city is installing three water tanks and hiring neighbourhood caretakers funded through corporate social responsibility grants, hoping to secure at least 85 percent survival.
